Hunger strike continues in protest of NTT budget

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

Students on a hunger strike in the province of East Nusa Tenggara threatened on Monday to encourage locals not to pay taxes if the province's budget was not revised to ensure that public interests were placed above all others.

At least five students have been on a hunger strike since Friday in protest of this year's Rp 215 billion budget, Rp 12 billion of which has been allocated to the salaries of all 55 legislators.

The Rp 12 billion fund was allotted from the province's original total revenue of Rp 42 billion.

The students on the hunger strike were among at least 100 others who started their demonstration on Friday at the provincial legislative council, where they pitched blue tents for shelter.

The protesters continued their free speech gathering on Monday to campaign for public disobedience of tax payments.

Council speaker Daniel Woda Palle told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the legislature had yielded to the hunger strikers' demand, but underlined that a change to the budget would only be made three months after it came into effect.

"The council has accepted the demand and aspiration of the students. But the budget will be changed in April or May 2002," he said.

In response to Daniel's statement, the spokesman for the protesters, Vincent Bureni, said the protest would continue until the legislature accepts their demand for an immediate review of the budget.

"The provincial budget will be revised in April or May 2002. That means we allow council members to blackmail people," he said.

The five students on the hunger strike, Nel Parera, Fandi Tade, Gusti Tulasi, Fredik Boy Bani and Nico Manoka, are from various universities.

The strike drew widespread attention and public sympathy with many visitors lending moral support to the protesters' actions.

The protesters called the local legislators, who refused to meet them, arrogant for their stubbornness in prioritizing their own interests in endorsing the budget.

"East Nusa Tenggara has the lowest income per capita in Indonesia, and reaches only Rp 42 billion. But all 55 members of the legislature are extravagant with the money by spending one- third of it (Rp 12 billion) on self-serving benefits," Vincent said.

The Rp 12 billion has been allocated to cover their representation fees of Rp 1.23 billion, a welfare allowance of Rp 1.32 billion, medical allowance of Rp 825 million, clothing allowance of Rp 1.33 billion and travel expenses for official trips of 2.85 billion as well as the operational costs for the council's secretariat of Rp 3 billion.

Each legislator will also earn a salary of Rp 218 million a year or an equivalent of Rp 18 million per month, while the average per capital income for four million people, comprising 600,000 families, in the less-developed provinces is under Rp 1,000 each.

Based on data from local population authorities, at least 80 percent of the people, or 550,146 families in 13 regencies, are categorized as poor. They eat meat or fish once a week, own one piece of clothing and live in wooden shacks with dirt floors.